Stock Building Supply Locations Moving Back Into Locals' Hands

The divestiture of Stock Building Supply by UK-based distributor Wolseley plc has sparked a string of expansions for small, local building materials distributors who are picking up the locations left by Stock. Or former owners of those locations are buying them back.

The former Stock branches are being reinvented as local, independent distributors.

And in many cases the former employees of those Stock locations are being rehired by the new owners. In this article by the Valley Courier, a family that owns another long-time nearby building materials distributor purchased the former Stock property. The distributor plans to re-open the location as Alamosa Building Supply sometime in the next month.

One of the new owners said: "We are just excited as a company going forward with this, expanding our operation, and we are glad that we could continue to keep the money here in the Valley. It is not going to go out to some big corporation out of town or out of state."

According to some news reports, Building Industry Partners, a private equity firm, is partnering with Stock locations' managers in some states and converting those locations into independent local firms.

Stock Building Supply was formed from Wolseley's acquisition of Carolina Builders in 1986 and built up rapidly through acquisitions. Recently, Wolseley announced that private equity group The Gores Group would take majority ownership in a joint venture agreement between the two. Stock went through a restructuring first. As part of the filing, Stock said it would close more than 200 locations. The distributor is now focused on 19 core markets.